


Don’t Be Such A Fool

by Fox_155



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Photographer, Getting Back Together, M/M, Mild Smut, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Parenthood, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-07 10:05:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17363966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_155/pseuds/Fox_155
Summary: Johnny is a renowned photographer for music companies, with a huge weak spot for children and a stressed assistant, who's still not over his college boyfriend.Then, his normal babysitting charge brings a new friend, that looks suspiciously like the person that still holds Johnny's heart.It couldn't be...?(Hi, it's me, the person who sucks at writing summaries. There's Way V being cute kids in here, NCT being parents and JohnTen unable to properly talk about feelings).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the people and this story isn't by any means an accurate representation of the people by whom it is inspired by.  
> This is set in an AU with A/B/O dynmics. So, there's mpreg, if you don't like that, please don't read it.
> 
> I noticed I write a ton of ABO and wondered, if I should stop. Then I started writing this so… yeah.  
> This idea is a copy from myself, I have an EXO-fic that’s similar to this, but it’s a concept I seem to be obsessed with. Anyway.  
> This is my first time writing the new NCT/WayV members, because we can all agree, that they look surprisingly similar to other NCT members (esp Yangyang, like…) and while I don’t know their personalities yet, they’re literally 5 in this story, so… I don’t think they need much of a personality yet.  
> Everyone else is aged up by 4 years from 2019.
> 
> Title is from Simon Says, which came out when I initially wrote this story, but got stuck in the last chapter, so I revised it and post it now, with the Way V debut around the corner.

Johnny stared at the photo he had pulled up on his large screen, eyes unblinking, until they became so teary, the image started swimming.

The picture was pretty, yes. The five Omega girls of the group he had shot with yesterday all had impeccable visuals, their surroundings were stunning, a garden with beautiful roses, and the sun had been just right to get the ideal lighting to emphasize the innocent vibe it gave off.

But something didn’t feel right, something didn’t feel right with all the pictures of the shoot and if he only knew what it was… then he could fix it. But instead, there was just this unpleasant feeling of having done a mediocre job and not the very best. 

His clients weren’t paying him for something mediocre. They could get any photographer off the streets off Seoul for that. They paid him, because Johnny Seo made whoever he got in front of his lens look extraordinary. 

Agencies loved that, and honestly, so did Johnny. It was why he worked as a photographer for all these music companies in the first place, because he loved showing the best side of people in different situations.

The knock on the door ripped him from his mulling and a second later, his assistant poked his head inside. 

“Hey Mark, what’s up? Did you reach Jaehyun?” Johnny tapped his finger on the mouse without actually clicking it.

“Oh, manager Jung was in a meeting, but he’ll call back once he’s done. The secretary promised after I threatened we wouldn’t work with SM Ent anymore.”

Johnny smiled. Of course he wouldn’t make true of that, but people liked to “forget”. Mark had been way too nice for the first months working for him, which lead to much more chasing after managers and marketing people than necessary. He had made him toughen up a bit and now, he was already out and about, coming up with his own threats. They grew up so quickly... 

“Okay, that’s fine. Anything else?” Mark kept hovering in the door.

“Uh… Taeil-Hyung is in the line.”

“Oh, okay.” Johnny reached for the phone on his desk, which was completely outdated in his opinion, but he used it too much to get rid of it. So, the electronic dinosaur lived its happy life on his desk. Mark slipped out the door, as the line connected and Johnny immediately heard the tell-tale noise of Seoul streets in the background.

“Hey, Taeil-Hyung.”

“Johnny! How are you on this beautiful day?” Johnny looked out the huge window into the dull and grey sky over Gangnam. 

“Wonderful.”

“That’s good to hear. Say, are you at the office? Do you have a shoot today? Or do you perhaps have a bit of free time?”

Johnny chuckled, as he heard the screaming of a child. “No, I’m free, just editing, but I’m feeling a little uninspired. Maybe playing with kids a little would help, though?”

“Well, I have just the opportunity for you then! Sicheng’s stuck in a meeting and I have another two clients in… five minutes, so maybe you could take Yangyang and his friend? Just until Sicheng’s done, I promise, it won’t be long at all!”

“I’d love to. Bring them over and tell Sicheng to take his time.” 

 

Taeil and Johnny had met only four years ago, when Taeil had been full of the worries of a new parent and sobbed into Johnny’s sweatshirt on a Wednesday night at a bar. Johnny had returned the Beta safe and sound to a worried but forgiving Sicheng.

Ever since Taeil had shown up in his office with the hangover from hell and an adorable toddler to profusely apologise and thank him, they were close friends. On top, Taeil did his taxes in turn for babysitting duties, which worked just fine for him. 

Because Johnny loved children. Other people went running, when a baby started crying, Johnny wanted to go and pacify them. He knew that was odd for an Alpha, especially a single Alpha, like him without his own kids, but he’d always been that way. There were worse character traits than compassion, in his opinion.

 

“I’ll treat you to chicken and beer some time for this, I promise.” Taeil hung up and Johnny grinned to himself. He looked at the computer-screen and sighed, minimising photoshop to check his emails. Mark had forwarded an offer from his primary work account that he never personally checked. 

By the time Johnny had read through the pdf file, the obnoxious doorbell rang and he let the computer go to stand-by. 

“That’s Taeil-Hyung, he’s bringing the baby and his friend.” Johnny announced to a confused Mark, who had already pressed the buzzer for the front door.

“Oh, okay. I thought it was maybe more clothing from Amazon.”

“Not today.” Johnny chuckled. It was true, that his office doubled as a post office, next to the photography gig. The old tale of using materialism to make up for emotional emptiness, or something.

“How long will they stay?” Mark asked, looking pained. Johnny chuckled at his assistant. Mark was a very sweet Beta, but also very awkward at times, especially with kids. And Yangyang didn’t hesitate telling it as he saw it.

“Until Sicheng finishes his meeting. No idea when that will be, I hope later rather than sooner.” There was a knock on the door and Johnny stepped past Mark to open. 

“Johnny-Hyung!” a child slammed into his legs immediately, hugging them tight. Johnny laughed and leaned down to pull Yangyang up.

“I feel like he loves you more than me sometimes.” Taeil sighed deeply, before pushing another child into the room. “I’m eternally grateful and super late, so excuse me.” And he turned to run. The other child looked after him with a panicked expression. 

Johnny kneeled down, to set down Yangyang, as well as try to seem less intimidating. And he might start to need glasses to even properly see children this boy’s height. “Hello. My name is Johnny, what’s your name?”

The boy looked at his friend for help, which Yangyang happily offered. “Johnny-Hyung is really totally nice. Ah. This is Hendery. He’s really new in my class and he has a funny name, like me and Jun-Jun, so, we had to be friends.” He loudly explained.

“Well, of course, that makes sense. Nice to meet you, Hendery.”

The boy looked at Johnny for a moment and it felt like he was having a déjà-vu, like he had seen this face before.

“Johnny-Hyung has a lot of costumes, so we can play dress up! Hyung! You have to dress up, too. Mark-Hyung, you, too!” Yangyang announced and Johnny chuckled at Mark’s miserable expression.

His costumes were a collection of clothes he kept from shootings, in cases where the stylists would have gotten rid of them. It was sometimes fun to use them, be it for further inspiration or to make a collage out of pieces of the fabric among photos.

And ever since Yangyang had discovered it a few months past, he made sure to always ask and make sure to bring everything he could.

“I’ll be the king. And you will be the queen. And Johnny-Hyung will be the princess. And Mark-Hyung will be the evil witch.” 

The kids disappeared into Johnny’s office, Mark looked after then with a shocked expression. “He hates me, doesn’t he? That child is evil!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mark. It’s a five-year-old, a very adorable one on top. And related to Sicheng, a literal angel on earth.”

“I know, that’s what I’m trying to tell myself, but then he opens his mouth.”

“Mark-Hyung, I found this for you, you’ll look really evil in it!” Yangyang dragged out the dramatic neon-green suit Johnny had snatched from Sooyoung two weeks ago.

“Oh, yes, he will! Great job, Yangyang!” Johnny praised.

“Hendery found it!”

Johnny looked for the other boy, who was behind his friend. “Even better, you don’t even know your way around here and already found such a great outfit for Mark to wear!” the little boy beamed and stood a little taller. His eyes did a cute half-close at that and Johnny felt himself wondering, how common a trait that was, as it reminded him so strongly of one specific person, before snapping himself out of it.

Wow, he definitely needed to do more shopping to silence those damn feelings… he was seeing things now!

“Now you have to change, Mark-Hyung!” Yangyang announced, already clinging to Mark’s leg. 

Mark was not granted privacy to do so, but the boys didn’t blink an eye, as he pulled the suit on top of his skinny jeans. 

It seemed to be to their satisfaction, which would never happen on any shooting set ever, when a stylist put a new outfit on a model. Children were blissfully oblivious to the complex matter of cuts and fits. And when forced into fancy neon green suits, Mark suddenly seemed to be much less picky about them, too, than with his complex everyday outfits.

Next came the king and the queen. Which meant both of them wrapped themselves into the sparkling tulle skirts, that Johnny had long cut off to fit a child. How exactly that was king and queen material, Johnny didn’t dare to ask.

 

“You need to make pictures, Johnny-Hyung! We’ll be fighting the evil Mark-Hyung, like so.” Yangyang pressed a wand (painted and bedazzled pencil) into Hendery’s hand and they started waving them towards Mark, who backed away slowly with a worried expression. Johnny didn’t miss him covering his crotch.

“You need to hold still for a picture, though, else it won’t be pretty.” Johnny said. In real life, no one wanted a completely stiff model, but children didn’t understand the concept of moving slow enough a camera could capture a pose. And he also still needed Mark, desperately so, so having them fixed in place seemed like a safe option for all parties.

“We’ll hold still, promise Hyung!” Hendery announced and Johnny smiled, as he grabbed the small camera he liked to use for snapshots like this. Many children were shy at first but warmed up easily. It would appear Hendery was the same.

“Alright, please get in fighting pose. Mark, you’re looking a bit unthreatening there, try and channel your inner villain.” Johnny encouraged, while the boys stretched beautifully, no inhibitions. If only all his models were such naturals…

“Yes, wonderful. Yangyang, try and hold the wand a little higher. Wonderful. I think I got a few good shots.” Johnny looked at the previews, while Mark sighed in relief.

“I wanna see!” Yangyang pulled Hendery along and Johnny squatted down so the kids could look on the preview display of the camera. The audience was very, very impressed with the photos, which also never happened on a normal set, when you only did about three poses and took 10 pictures. Children were a true blessing. 

“Now we need to edit them!” Yangyang threw his wand the general direction of the costume box, ripping the skirt off himself.

“What’s edit? Is that fun?” Hendery asked, eyes wide, waddling after his friend, still in his costume.

“Yes, it’s super fun! Johnny-Hyung can make the skirts sparkle a ton and make there be flowers and stuff!” Yangyang yelled. “Please, Johnny-Hyung!”

“Well, first of all, we would have to clean here.”

“But that’s boring.”

“Well, we can’t edit, if there’s clothing lying around. The computer won’t work.” Johnny earnestly said. Mark coughed loudly but went unacknowledged. 

“Come on, just clean up quickly, I want to edit!” Hendery whined, pushing his friend a little.

It didn’t take long to push clothing back into a box and quickly, Johnny found himself with one boy on each leg in front of the computer screen again. Hendery’s initial shyness completely melted away as the two kept suggesting new things to enhance on the pictures. In the end, they were more over the top, than any rococo painting could dream of being and Johnny loved them just as much as the kids did. 

This wasn’t something you could print and sell to fans. But it was genuinely appreciated by the boys, who each got a print of it, naturally. And that meant so much to him, it didn’t matter how ridiculous the photos objectively speaking looked. 

The boys got bored, as their photo was deemed perfect and looked for something new to do.

Johnny made sure to quickly adjust the lighting and colour of some of the pictures taken of only the boys, so their parents would have something to maybe hang up. He knew there was a tiny shrine for Yangyang in the Moon household with him providing a large percentage of the pictures hung up there. 

He glanced over to the two boys laying on their tummies next to each other, whispering over the characters they were drawing in neon markers on his expensive printing paper. It wasn’t like his own family, but it was like a small escape, where he could pretend he was in a house full of kids, that he could play with and cuddle whenever he wanted. 

 

“Baba!” Yangyang screeched and jumped up and ran to the man coming through the office door. Johnny snapped out of his creative zone and quickly sent the last image to the printer, saving everything.

“Hi Johnny-Hyung. Thank you so much for looking after these two, I really wouldn’t know what to do without you!” Sicheng smiled his sweet smile and Johnny waved his hands.

“Any time. You know I love Yangyang and Hendery is such a cutie, too.”

“I’m not cute! I’m manly!” Hendery announced, not even bothering to look up from his painting.

“We took some pictures, baba, and we made them look really, really pretty, look!” Yangyang pushed the print out against Sicheng’s stomach and the Omega gently took them to inspect, nodding earnestly. 

“Yes, these really do look quite amazing! You made very good elves, fighting the evil dragon!”

“Baba!” the child whined loudly. Hendery had deemed his picture ready and collected the highlighter to carry back to Johnny’s desk. “We are a king and a queen, of course, fighting the evil witch! We don’t look anything like elves at all!”

“Oh. Well, yes of course, I notice that now, I didn’t look properly the first time. Sorry, darling.”

“Well, you should be looking better next time.” Yangyang pouted and crossed his arms, because this was obviously a major offence. 

“Johnny-Hyung?” Johnny turned his head down to see the other boy hold out the hand with his pens. “Here!”

“Thank you, Hendery. Look, I printed some pictures for you to take home and show your parents, if you want.”

The boy held out his hands and excitedly looked through the papers. “Thank you, Hyung! I like this the best! They’re much better than the super boring nature photos my Daddy always hangs up.”

Johnny felt a little bad for the man, if his aesthetic was calm nature, this would clash quite badly. “But why is nature boring? It’s very beautiful, don’t you think?”

“No. It’s boring. This is better. Can I come back soon and make more?”

“Of course, you can.” Johnny chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair. He really was extraordinarily cute… maybe even more so than Yangyang and his other friend he sometimes brought…

 

“Hyung, did you give me fangs?” Mark asked, eyes wide, the moment the door had closed. 

“Well, the boys thought you needed them, you do look somewhat… stiff back there.”

“If I didn’t like Sicheng-Hyung so much, I would quit over this.” Mark grumbled and put the photo into his letter holder.

“Of course. And miss the chance to work with the amazing Johnny Seo.”

Mark rolled his eyes, but they both knew, it was true. Mark had admitted to being a “huge fan” in his interview by accident and then stumbled on so cutely, that Johnny just had to hire him, despite lacking any sort of experience and not even being from the field. Mark rapped in his free time, but the small gigs didn’t pay that well.

It turned out to be the best decision, because Mark was reliable and a hard worker, maybe a little too forgiving, but he was learning.

“I don’t get how you can love children so much and never even bother to try and find an Omega or a girl to date, marry and have your own.” Mark shook his head “It would seem like there’s more than enough who would love to date someone like you?”. Johnny chuckled softly, putting on a smile.

“Seems like I’m too picky.”

Mark squinted and started opening his mouth but was interrupted by the phone. Johnny fled and pulled the girl group photoshoot back up. Sparkling special effects in the back of his head, he suddenly saw all the problems the images had, and his mouse started racing over the screen, as he adjusted, fixed, cut and re-aligned. 

 

“Hyung? It’s manager Jung!”

“Finally. Does he think I have all my schedule according to when he needs me to shoot his little lambs?” Johnny snorted and picked up the phone.

“Johnny-Hyung! How is my favourite photographer doing?”

“The flattery will get you no-where.”

“But the sweet money my company pays you will. Plus, I told you three weeks ago I need you for the new album cover and booklet.”

…

Three days later, Johnny came stumbling home, exhausted to the bone. The girl group shoot had finally been taken off by management of the group, but only after what felt like 3 million more requests for adjusting. ‘Her legs look short’ ‘her tummy needs to be a bit flatter’ ‘lighten her skin some more’ and so on. It was what Johnny hated about his job and he only did it to an extend that didn’t leave behind completely new people. In the past, he had tried not doing it at all, but that led to companies not wanting to work with him anymore and Johnny couldn’t afford running out of business.

“Youngho-sshi, I left your friends up earlier.” The receptionist greeted him and Johnny felt himself smile, as he took the lift. No matter how many years went by, Yuta and Doyoung always found time for the three of them to relive college days and spend time at least once a month. 

The scent of food greeted him, when the lock confirmed the right pin and he pushed the door open.

“You’re late!” Yuta’s voice echoed to the hallway immediately. 

“Sorry, client was being a pain. What are you cooking?” Johnny shuffled through the living room and into the black-and-white kitchen, where Yuta was handling pans and pots, while Doyoung had control of the Bluetooth speaker. The Japanese was first to hug Johnny tightly.

“Curry. I was already telling Doyoung about the newest successes in my love life, but no worries, I’ll repeat it for you.”

“Please no.” Doyoung rolled his eyes and gave Johnny a quick hug in greeting. He had never been one for a lot of touching, despite being an Omega.

“Wonderful, I can’t wait to hear it all!” Johnny grinned and snatched a chopped carrot from the plate next to the stove. 

“See? That’s what a loyal friend says, instead of ‘Please spare me’. Anyway, tinder was more than a let-down recently, but I actually ran in the single most stunning, most beautiful, most breath-taking, most…”

“We got it.” Doyoung sighed.

“Most mesmerising Omega at the supermarket this week. He spilled a bottle of tomato sauce all over me, which was a bit unfortunate, but he said he’d have to pay for the dry cleaning and gave me his number and name.” Yuta beamed, before turning off the heat and they proceeded to set the table.

“And he’s not… married or anything?” Johnny raised an eyebrow. Sure, this wasn’t the 60s, where people made sure to marry their Omega children by the age of 22 the least, but still, people had relationships. Especially their age, when you neared 30.

“No ring, no scent mark, pretty safe it’s a go for me. I mean, he was literally so beautiful I forgot how breathing worked for a moment. And then his name, Taeyong, so fitting for a face like his.”

“I’m glad you always focus on what really counts: personality, similar interests…” 

“Shut up Doyoung, like your husband is ugly or anything.”

“That is completely off the topic here.”

“Wait a minute. Angelic face, Omega, Taeyong… I think I know your guy!” Johnny chipped in and Yuta’s head immediately snapped to him, eyes hopeful.

“Well, the good news, if it’s him, then he’s divorced and been single ever since. The maybe bad news is, that he’s got a really cute son, who’s friends with Yangyang.”

“I like kids. As long as he’s single and ready to mingle, I’m still interested.”

“I think I just threw up a little. On a different, much less appalling topic: Jeno said, they were going to have another photography exhibit next month, so maybe we could leave the house together again? You know, socialise? Seeing and be seen?” Doyoung suggested, flopping down on a chair.

“Sounds good! How’s his internship going? Is the boss still being weird?”

“If anything, I think it got worse, but Jeno got used to it, so now I’m the one mainly weirded out at that man’s antics. But as long as Jeno’s happy…”

“Aw, so cute!” Yuta cooed. Jeno and Doyoung weren’t related by blood, but the Omega had always treated the younger like a brother. They had been neighbours when they both still were in elementary school, Doyoung in 5th grade, Jeno in 1st, where the friendship stemmed from. Jeno, dressed in his school uniform, visiting on campus was a vivid memory in Johnny’s mind. 

“But I like the idea, too. We could check the exhibit and then have BBQ at that amazing place two blocks down from the gallery.” Yuta suggested, earning eager nods.

“But no silly bets over who has to pay this time.” Johnny sighed. His bad luck was infamous.

“Aw, like you couldn’t afford it! I know for sure, that you’ll be shooting NCT A & O’s new album next week. If anything, I shouldn’t have to pay, because my husband will be away 24/7 because of the promotions next months, I need consolidation.” Doyoung poked his chopstick’s Johnny’s direction.

“Not my fault he can’t entrust his babies to another manager.” Johnny chuckled and Doyoung sighed deeply.

“I always feel like the reason why you don’t have your own kids is, because you each already adopted children. Very old children.” Yuta contemplated and it was a thought Johnny had had before.

“Honestly, it’s a bit like that. And I’m terrified of the whole giving birth thing?” Doyoung shuddered. The two Alphas frowned. 

“That seems understandable.” 

…

On Sundays, Johnny usually had the day off. Saturdays were often spent editing, depending on his work load, but he always made sure to have one day completely free. When he had started his career, he had been so focussed on work, mainly to use it as an escape from his failing private life after graduating college and losing the framework that he had gotten used to for years. But when the work had gotten so much, that he needed and could afford to pay a full-time assistant, he realised he couldn’t drag someone else into that sort of lifestyle. 

For her sake, he had cut back and implemented his Sundays as free. Despite having had multiple people filling the position since, he kept it that way. And he had never realised, how his inspiration had run low on his high work-load, until he took the time to breathe.

He wasted away half his day on Netflix and the other half trying to make the stir fry he had seen on pinterest – failing of course. 

…

Johnny parked his car in front of the familiar building of the studio complex he liked to rent whenever they were free for his shots. Mark and him climbed out the car, grabbing as many of the bags of equipment they still had to bring, because even the best studio didn’t provide everything, as they could, before heading to the door.

The inside was already buzzing with life. Staff was putting up the set Johnny had requested for the shot, adjusting lights, laying cable everywhere. 

“Good morning.” The cheery voice of Johnny’s favourite make-up artists chirped and Johnny grinned, before leaning down to hug Donghyuck.

“Our celebrities still not here?” he asked jokingly. He turned, but Mark was gone. Probably to get the remaining bags and to avoid having to be close to Donghyuck. As smooth as sand paper.

“No, they’re running late by three minutes.” Donghyuck pouted and crossed his arms.

“Well, it’ll bust Jaehyun’s schedule, not mine, if this takes longer.” Johnny chuckled. Jaehyun loved to make plans down to the minute, but his charges ruined them on a regular basis. One might think, that after having managed them for five years, he should have learnt something, but no.

“I can already see him tapping his foot.” Donghyuck giggled. Johnny could, too.

“Well, I’ll get to supervising the set-up. Oh, there’s the terrible trio.” Johnny announced, as he watched the door barge open and a stressed looking Jaehyun hurrying after two tall guys, hidden under caps and face masks. Some screaming girls were muffled by the metal doors closing.

“Good morning, what a wonderful day!” Yukhei hollered at full volume. Johnny saw someone of the staff startle so badly, they dropped the box they were holding.

Donghyuck marched towards the group, behind which more staff filtered into the studio. Johnny watched the tiny stylist warmly greet Yukhei and Jungwoo, before starting to nag Jaehyun for being late and disrespecting the arts, and finally drag away the guys to get started on having them photo-ready.

This was, why Johnny loved working with him. He was just so fun, and especially new people expected to be able to command the small Omega around, only to regret their decision to ever try seconds later. Maybe, it was because that reminded him of someone. Not to mention, Donghyuck’s aesthetic matched his perfectly. He’d send him the mood-boards and concepts a few days prior and whoever he was going to shoot turned up with the ideal look on his set.

Speaking of Set, Johnny gave Jaehyun a wave, the manager already on the phone again, and started looking over what had already been set up. 

“Boss, we weren’t sure where you wanted the chairs to go, so we put them to the side. The second wall will take another twenty minutes to put up and then we can decorate it, to match the first.” A young guy with a clipboard immediately informed him.

“Put one chair under each window. Are the feathers there yet?”

“Yes, we have three bags, so we shouldn’t run out.”

“Good. Spread about half a bag on the ground before we even get started. What about the outside setting, how much longer will that take?”

“We’ll have that done right on time, five minutes before shooting starts.”

Johnny nodded and quickly assured himself, that the man wasn’t faking it. Once satisfied, he started to help Mark unpack reflectors and set up his camera and computer. They still had time to drink coffee, before Jungwoo and Yukhei emerged from their dressing room. Johnny smiled proudly at the end result. 

The new release was going to be a soft love song, something the two had never promoted as their title track, only had on their B side until now. It was typical for NCT A&O, who never stuck with the same concept twice. That, plus their unique line-up of only two people, and an Alpha and an Omega on top of that, was the reason for their immense success. 

Of course, it was also the reason for plenty of bad press, Johnny couldn’t count how many times the news had announced the two were dating. This time totally for sure. Only to have it denied and debunked two days later. He knew for sure, that they weren’t and never had been, but that was top-secret insider information he would never give away. After all, they still were idols and a large part of their marketing relied on the inevitable sexual tension they had.

But the even bigger damage would be inflicted on Yukhei’s boyfriend, who was a member of an all Omega boy group. Johnny would never do that to anyone.

“Oh! Do we get to play with the feathers?” Jungwoo cooed the second he spotted them, eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Johnny laughed. This was going to be fun. He wasn’t going to admit it to Jaehyun and make him even more annoying, but these two were some of his favourite people to shoot in the industry.

…

Generally, Johnny was spared the infamous company dinners, that secretly just were masked drinking fests, that other people his age had to suffer through. He had definitely picked Yuta, drunk off his arse, up from one of those too many times to feel the need to attend one himself. But if he wanted to stay relevant as a photographer, he’d have to manage his connections and managing connections worked wonderfully at those parties the agencies loved to throw, where their own staff and the staff of other agencies was invited to show off and flex on the competition. 

He had been trapped in a dreadfully boring conversation about the benefits of dancing competition tv programs for much too long, when he spotted Jaehyun, looking stressed as per usual, and excused himself to stick to him.

“Hey, Jaehyun. You look much too stressed for this setting. Here, have some champagne.” Johnny pushed a glass into the other Alpha’s hand, who took it and threw the whole thing back. He watched in fascination, as the manager kept a straight face, despite the carbonated alcohol surely being more than unpleasant.

“Thanks. Fuck, I needed that. I don’t even want to think about next week, when promotions start. We had another of those fucking leeches wait in front of the company and try to press answers out of Jungwoo, if the love song was related to the two of them finally getting together. You know how scared Jungwoo gets by that scum, when they keep pressing.”

Johnny did know, because there were hour long compilations on Youtube of Jungwoo crying. And he knew, Jaehyun always worried over the Omega, despite him only being a year younger than Jaehyun himself. There was a reason why he hadn’t left the job for a desk 9 to 5 one, when he had gotten married and it was the reason why Doyoung understood.

“You need something harder?” 

“I think so. God, I really hate paparazzi. Anyway, how are the pictures coming along? Deadline is in two days, remember?”

“No worries, I’m almost done, you’ll get the file tomorrow, so you can send it back with two pages of complaints.”

“I don’t… well, okay. Maybe. Let me make it up to you by introducing you to the new manager JYP hired.”

Johnny trailed after Jaehyun through the crowd. After a pit stop at the bar, they made their way over to two young women, one of which Johnny had never seen before, so he guessed that was the new hire.

“… certainly beautiful, I feel like this Ten is a nature spirit, his pictures are just one of a kind. Oh! Jaehyun-sshi! I kept looking for you earlier.” He couldn’t help but perk up at the name, no matter how many times he had told himself to not. 

“Sorry, I was kept back. This is Johnny Seo, one of our most contracted photographers.”

Johnny smiled brightly and fell into the pattern of small talk, getting to know each other, exchange business cards, it was always the same. Some days, it was fun, but today, it was more of a drag and he felt eager to finally get it over with and go home.

Over the evening, he cut off a well into the tipsy phase Jaehyun and collected more cards, but all the conversations seemed boring, all the people bland and superficial. He knew, he should be trying harder, because it was just the same as every day. But he couldn’t. Not when his thought kept going back to a person that was anything but superficial, anything but boring, completely unlike anyone else. Just because of the drop of a name.

“You have the heart-break face on again, Youngho-Hyung.” Jaehyun chuckled, patting his cheeks, as they tried to catch a cap. Johnny let him, feeling his breath, smelling strongly of the alcohol he had drunk, ghost against him.

“No I don’t. Careful, there’s an unevenness.”

“Yes, you do. Why don’t you let me set you up with another really super nice Omega?”

“Jaehyun, we’ve been through that, it was terrible for all of us and we decided to not do it again.”

“But you look sad. I don’t like it when you’re sad.”

“I’m not sad.” Johnny manhandled his friend into the car that had stopped and Jaehyun leaned against the door lethargically. 

“Yes you are and we all know it, you just sometimes hide it better. You’re such a romantic, why don’t you give dating a try? If you’ve never done it, you can’t know for sure you don’t like it!”

Johnny patted his thigh but didn’t answer. Luckily their drive wasn’t far and Johnny handed Jaehyun over to his unimpressed husband in pyjamas, before heading home himself to quickly go to sleep and turn off his brain.

…

Just as expected, Jaehyun, looking hung over as hell, face timed Johnny and started going through his list of tiny mistakes. And Johnny, being the good person he was, and also wanting to deliver a perfect product, especially when it was NCT A & O, ended up working until four in the morning. So, he found it was just reasonable to give Mark the day off and sleep in. Those were the perks of freelancing. All he’d be doing for the next days, would be work on his website, anyway, until the next shooting was booked.

The sun was casting a beautiful warm autumn light over Seoul, when he woke up, so he decided on a whim to take his small camera and do a few snapshots in one of the many parks. He could blur out faces and use them as background on his main page or Instagram. It’d set a good mood for the season. 

He found himself strolling, after capturing a few shots, just taking in the atmosphere. 

“Johnny!” 

He was on the path next to the playground and looked to find who had called him. His eyes fell on a wildly waving man on one of the benches and Johnny chuckled to himself. He passed the wooden gate and moved through the small crowd of mothers and fathers keeping their eyes on children loudly playing. 

“Hey Taeyong. Nice to see you.” 

“Same, we haven’t seen each other in too long. How are you?”

“I’m fine, all normal. What about you?”

“The same. Mostly. You know how it is. Or not.” Taeyong scratched his neck. To call them friends would be too much, but Taeyong had picked up Yangyang and Dejun from his office before and they shared their obsession with the children. Johnny was mostly just honoured, that Taeyong trusted him with his son.

“Johnny-Hyung! I saw you right away!” Yangyang came running over, waving a small plastic shove in his right hand. Sand landed on Johnny’s wool coat, as he got attacked, the first boy quickly followed by his two friends and Johnny found himself pulled towards the sandpit.

Not like he minded.

“We build a huge castle. And there lives a mermaid princess in it.” Dejun explained and Johnny hoped no to get too much sand into his sneakers, as he stepped towards the, indeed big, slightly ugly building.

“Oh, yes, I can tell right away, because of the shells. Where did you find those?”

“Those are mine!” Hendery yelled, puffing his chest. “I brought them, I found them on the beach when I went with Daddy, all by myself.”

“Wow, that is very impressive! You all did a really good job at building this, it’s huge!”

“Right?” Yangyang beamed, clapping his small hands.

Someone tugged on his coat and Johnny looked down. Hendery looked up at him with wide eyes and there it was again, this feeling of familiarity. 

Johnny pushed it down and smiled down at the boy. “Johnny-Hyung, can you make a phototograph?” He almost cooed at the small word-stumble, but quickly nodded.

Call him whipped for children, but how could somebody ever say no to a sweet angle such as this? “Of course, I will!”

 

Taeyong excitedly clicked through the previews on Johnny’s camera, as much excitement in his eyes as the kids usually had. “Can you send me those? These are so cute! Oh, look, how adorable!”

The Omega held the camera under his nose to inspect a specific photo. They were very adorable, indeed.

“Sure, I can mail them to you. Just give me your address.” 

“That’d be amazing. Oh. Speaking of which. I meant to ask you, but then forgot, silly me. Do you happen to know a certain Nakamoto Yuta?”

Johnny nodded carefully. Taeyong turned off the camera and handed it back.

“I see. Because I stupidly splattered Tomato sauce over him at the grocery store two weeks ago and then I wondered, when he’d text me because I insisted to cover the cleaning costs, if that even comes out, and when he did, we somehow started talking further and – uh. I looked him up on social media, because it was just going a bit too smoothly and that was weird to me, so I was just making sure. I saw you in a few pictures, so I wondered… if you knew him…”

Taeyong’s eyes were big and hopeful and Johnny understood the implication. If he knew, if Yuta was to be trusted.

“Yeah, I’ve been friends with Yuta since college. He’s a really fun guy, but he’s a bit unlucky in love.”

“Huh.” Taeyong found his son with his eyes. “You think he’s interested like that? Or maybe he’s just being nice? I mean, we aren’t that young anymore, but I couldn’t help wondering.”

“Yuta’s always interested like that, if you got that feeling, you were right.”

“Well, he probably won’t be the second he hears about Junie anyway.” Taeyong shrugged, looking very small.

“Hm, I don’t think that’s a problem. The actual problem that’s root to Yuta’s troublesome love life is how he sells himself and what his partners expect because of that. They usually think he’s just looking for something physical and he comes off like that. And Yuta’s bad at having serious conversations.”

Taeyong studied Johnny’s face, before nodding. “Thanks for that insight. That was quite helpful. You know… single parent Omegas are pretty much left-over ware in the eyes of most people, so even though I want to move on, I end up being stuck.”

Johnny nodded, eyes trailing back to over there, where the boys were screeching, tumbling down the slide. He knew the feeling of being stuck, though in a way much different from Taeyong.

“Well, I’ll have to get going, these little guys need to get back to their parents. It was nice talking to you and thank you for the photos.” 

…

“Hyung, I’ve gotten a total of four requests from manager Kim now. Are you sure you won’t do business with TS?” Mark poked his head into Johnny’s office. 

“Absolutely. They’re a nightmare to work with and I don’t agree with how they treat their artists. Write something rude, if he won’t let go.”

“Okay. And then Donghyuck send you some YouTube videos and I thought he had your private address?”

Johnny chuckled. “He does.”

“Uh – I’ll just forward them then.”

“Mark, those are for you. He knows you take care of that account, I’ve been working with him for two years.”

“What? But why would he send me Youtube links?”

“Because he probably thinks you’ll have a good time watching them.”

Mark looked utterly confused, eyes darting around, before he slowly moved backwards and softly closed the door. Johnny chuckled to himself, before continuing his work on the photos on his screen. His assistant was really a little oblivious.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I already finished writing this last year, so I'll post every other day. :)

“Jeno got us tickets for the opening night of the exhibition at that gallery. Are you free on Wednesday, 1st of October?” Doyoung’s voice came from the speaker of Johnny’s phone, the voice mail running. “Because I sure as hell am, I’m as free as a single person, maybe even more. And the photographer will be there. I think he was in college with you, Johnny, the name definitely rang a bell, you knew a Ten? Like the number? So, it’s his photos. I need to know until tomorrow, or the tickets will be gone.”

Johnny stared at the eggs frying in his pan, until the white turned brown. He cursed and pulled it off the heat, but it was too late, the protein had burnt into the coating, leaving black, chunky pieces. He groaned and quickly opened the water, steam hissing up at the first touch.

He let the pan soak in the sink and decided to just have ice cream instead. He wasn’t even that hungry anymore. He picked up a new tub and snatched his phone settling in front of his TV. 

It took three seconds for Doyoung to answer his call.

“Hey, did you see my message?” his voice was tinny through the line.

“Yeah. I’m not sure I don’t think I have time that day. Or…”

“Are you absolutely, 100% sure? Because I am bored to death here and that opening seems super fun and I really need some fun in my life. There’s another three weeks of promotion and me not getting to see Jaehyunnie.” Doyoung’s voice was choked up. Johnny closed his eyes.

“Do you want me to come over?”

“Yeah.” 

 

Fifteen minutes later, Johnny was on the stylish sofa at the Jungs’ flat, finishing his ice cream that he had brought from home and sipping wine.

“Sorry, I hope you weren’t busy.”

“Wouldn’t have offered, silly.”

They sat in amicable silence and Johnny wondered what story to come up with, that explained how he most definitely couldn’t even get close to the crazy Gallery Byun Baekhyun ran as long as this specific exhibit was shown there.

“I’m a bit over-emotional, when I’m close to heat. I feel a bit silly now.” Doyoung sighed, cheeks pink from the wine.

“Normal. Anyway, why go on the opening day now?”

“Oh, Jeno was so excited to offer. I mean, there’s free snacks and champagne. There’s probably more people from your business, don’t you think? I thought it’d be a good opportunity.”

The doorbell rang and Doyoung got up, only to re-appear with a grinning Yuta, who helped himself to a tall glass of wine.

“So, I heard we’re going to be fancy as fuck and pretend to be cultivated at an exhibit opening? Fuck yeah, I’m so down.”

“If Johnny-Hyung’s free.” Doyoung eyed him and Yuta’s head snapped around.

“What do you mean? Are you already too fancy yourself to show up with your mere office-job-working friends?” Yuta screeched, dramatically waving his wine glass.

“No, I’m free, it’s fine.” Johnny smiled and regretted his words the same second.

“Great! I’ll tell Jeno!”

“Wonderful. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the next important thing: me! I have a date! With that ridiculously pretty Omega I told you about. He’s so funny, too, I’m so excited!” Yuta beamed and took a large gulp of his wine, only to wince and look like he was about to spit it out a second later.

“Congrats. Try and… you know… not get hurt?” Doyoung rubbed Yuta’s arm in worry.

“Sure thing. I watched YouTube videos on how to successfully communicate. I’m perfectly prepared.”

“There’s YouTube videos on that?” Johnny asked, wondering if he should drink a second glass. He didn’t feel the effect of the alcohol yet, having a high tolerance, but he wasn’t sure if getting drunk was a terrible or great idea right now.

“There’s YouTube videos on everything, Hyung. I need another glass, do you want a dry or a fruity wine?” Doyoung waved the empty bottle.

“Dry.” Johnny announced, deciding to just fuck it.

“Oh, you’re not joking around today, are you? The perks of self-employment.” Yuta sighed dramatically.

…

Well, Johnny still regretted him life-choices deeply the next day, when he felt like he had gotten run-over by a truck. Twice. And there were still a lot of images to edit and then send out, only to most likely re-adjust later.

At least he had Mark, the good angel, who brought him pain-killers without him even asking. Hopefully, Mark would never want to move on from this job, it’s be impossible to find a replacement that lived up to this standard.

…

Johnny didn’t even have to wait until the 1st of October for shit to hit the fan. Because he was just that lucky. 

Sicheng had called in a panic, if he could pick up Yangyang in his stead, because he was stuck at work and the kindergarten the boy went to closed at 5:30 pm. Johnny had been feeling a bit tired anyway, so he took the chance to get a breather. The place wasn’t far from his office, he could easily get there by foot, which he did, arriving just five minutes before closing.

People were giving him suspicious looks, but Johnny had been here before and knew, that it was just worried parents.

“May I help you?” a woman in bright clothing asked him and Johnny guessed she had to be a teacher. It wasn’t like he was going to march inside the room, pluck Yangyang off the floor and disappear, so he put on a bright smile and turned to her.

“Yes, I’m Seo Youngho.”

Her face morphed into a starry eyes expression, something he had seen with people who met idols for the first time, but not really ever with him.

“Oh my. What an honour to have you here. I – uh – I really adore your work with NCT A & O. But that’s not why you’re here. I’m sorry, I’ll get Hendery, just a second, I’ve seen him in the forge.”

She was about to leave, but Johnny stopped her.

“Sorry, Hendery?” he asked, trying to keep out the confusion. Sicheng had said he’d call them and tell them he was going to pick up Yangyang. The two were friends, so maybe she had mixed it up.

“Yes. Your… son?” she asked, seemingly just as confused as Johnny felt.

“My what?” he whispered. No, this had to be a mix up. He didn’t have a son. 

Another woman, the one Johnny already knew from last time he had been here, came into the hallway now, as Johnny still tried to understand why on earth this woman thought he had a son, and that that son was Hendery.

“Ah, Youngho-sshi, Sicheng-sshi called that you’d be picking up Yangyang.”

The first woman furrowed her brows. 

“Yangyang? Why isn’t he picking up Hendery?”

“Hendery? Why would he be picking up him?” The question Johnny was asking himself.

“Well, he’s his father, isn’t he?”

“I wasn’t aware.”

“I know for sure that he’s named as the Alpha parent in his file, because Hendery is in my group.”

The two women focussed on Johnny, who felt like he was experiencing this from a third-party point of view now. Wait. Maybe, this was an elaborate prank? Surely, that was it.

“Well, are you Hendery’s father, Youngho-sshi? Are you picking up both of them?” 

Johnny opened his mouth and closed it again. He recalled Hendery’s face and how it had been so weirdly familiar. In his mind, the face of the one person he tried to forget the most, but simply couldn’t, flashed up. The eyes, the smile, the expressions… goddamn, he should have just trusted his gut feeling!

“Good evening, I hope you can forgive me being a tiny bit late, I got held up at the gallery, we’re…”

Johnny turned around at the sound of that high-pitched voice and stared at the short man, who had just come through the entrance door. He was still dressing all black, how he had liked to in college, only the raven bangs that used to be harsh over his eyes and the shaved sides were replaced by soft, dark brown locks sweeping over his forehead. His face also looked softer, not how it had back in college, when the name alone had made Alphas quiver in fear of the Omega that not only didn’t put up with their shit but fired back tenfold. 

But he looked still just as beautiful, as Johnny remembered.

Their eyes met and Johnny saw how the Omega’s widened, as the words got stuck in his throat. 

“Ten. What a surprise.” Johnny rasped, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears. Fear started showing in Ten’s eyes, his answer just as stiff.

“Johnny. I didn’t expect to meet you here.”

The tension could be cut by a knife and Johnny just wanted to reach out, hug Ten, smell his sweet and fresh scent and tell him everything he had kept in for over five years and make what went wrong right.

But he couldn’t. His body wouldn’t move, he was just standing there, staring at the other.

“Johnny-Hyung!” the light voice of Yangyang dispersed the moment and they both snapped out of their own little world, as the little boy came hopping into the hallway and right into Johnny, hugging his legs how he always did.

“Hello, little man. Did you have a good day?” Johnny asked, leaning down to greet him. Hendery wasn’t as eager to leave, apparently, shuffling over the floor and giving Yangyang side glances. 

Ten spoke to the teachers over something Hendery had done today and Johnny wanted to listen, but Yangyang dragged him to his locker to get dressed. When Ten came over, Hendery on his hand, Johnny wanted to slap himself for ignoring what had been presented on a silver platter to him. Hendery was a mini-me of Ten.

“Ten, do you have a minute?” Johnny softly asked, while Yangyang carefully laced his boots, making both bows perfectly even.

Hendery was much quicker wrapped up and Ten didn’t even spare him a glance. It hurt and it felt undeserved. But they were in a kindergarten, with two pre-school kids that wouldn’t understand it, if Johnny made a scene. 

Hell, if what the teacher had said was trusted, the last thing Johnny wanted, was for Hendery to get scared, or even cry, because he and Ten fought. 

But internally, he was screaming. Wanted the truth, felt just as disappointed for something this huge to having been hidden from him, as he was happy to see Ten again.

“Today is bad. Sorry.” Hendery gently hugged Yangyang goodbye.

“Please, can you give me your number?” Johnny whispered, while keeping respectful distance. Ten looked up for a second and there was a hurricane of emotions in his eyes, in which he immediately seemed to drown.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Come on, Henny, let’s go home.”

“Bye, Yangyang. Bye Johnny-Hyung. Bye Yeon-Noona.” Hendery waved his little hand and all Johnny could do, was watch the two leave.

“Can we have ice cream?” Yangyang chirped, and Johnny was put back to reality. He had a child, that had been entrusted to him. No matter what it was between him and Ten, it had been there for five years, another few hours wouldn’t make a difference. For Yangyang on the other hand, this was important and he deserved Johnny’s attention.

“What does your baba say, when you want ice cream on such a cold day?” Johnny took the offered hand and bid the teacher good bye, leaving into the hallway.

“He always says no.” Yangyang pouted, blinking up at him. 

“And why is that?”

“Because he’s boring.”

“But your baba isn’t boring, is he? Don’t you think he’d be sad if he heard that?”

The boy seemed to mull over that, thinking hard, before nodding, face sad now. “He’s not boring. He says it’s because it makes me feel cold and my teeth bad.”

“Now, don’t you want to be warm, with good teeth?”

“Yes.”

“That’s right! It’s so much more fun! And I have an even better suggestion: we can have Mark make us nice warm tea in the office.”

“With the pink cup! I want the pink cup!”

“What’s the little magic word?”

“Please!”

…

From: photography@ten.com  
Subject: RE: Ten, can we please talk

Good morning Seo John-sshi,

We have taken note of your request, but are sorry to inform you, that Ten photography will not be looking into working with you.

Best regards,

Park Jisung  
Photography-Assistant  
\---  
e-mail: park.j@ten.com  
tel: 0123456789

 

“Mark?” Johnny glared at his screen. He was running on five cups of coffee and one hour of sleep. This email was not appreciated.

“Hyung, what’s it?” Mark’s head popped through the door. 

“I need you to please call someone for me. I’ll send you the email. I need to either speak to Ten, get his mobile phone number or… an appointment to see him. Whatever.” Johnny smashed his keys. He was running late on his client’s order, too, but all the pictures looked ugly and too commercial to him, after he had spent the night to first look at Ten’s website for hours, spending forever to appreciate every single photo in his portfolio on there, then his own collection of photos, and then another few hours of intensive web-research on him.

Ten had the eye of a photographer, even more so than himself, and Johnny knew his photos were good. And each photo held so much of himself, he had never dared to look at them, after the break-up. Now he knew, that had been the right choice and he should have stuck with it. But yesterday, he had been weak, typing the name into google, after looking through the photos of Hendery and the photos of Ten he still had on his computer, not put away on an external hard drive.

“Erm… okay? Sure, I’ll let you know the results.”

Johnny nodded glumly, before starting to apply cookie-cutter adjustments to his photos. Not something to be proud of, but something to send the customer without having to be ashamed of it.

 

“Hyung?” Johnny’s head snapped up from where he had fallen asleep on the desk for a second. “Hyung, are you okay? Do you need something? Are you sick? You’ve looked really bad since yesterday.”

“No, thank you Mark. I’m fine.”

“If you say so. Anyway, I didn’t really get any information from Ten’s assistant, this Jisung? He was… well honestly, he was kind of rude, I think, so I tried to be rude, too, but he was much better at the throwing punches thing so I’m afraid I couldn’t get the job done.” Mark looked miserable, like he was announcing their idol boy group had disbanded to a group of fangirls. 

“Shit. Okay, I’m sure you tried your best. Did you get the location at Lotte World booked for the editorial shoot next month?”

“Yes, of course! It’s all set!”

“Good. I’ll finish this up.”

Johnny powered through the remaining images and zipped the file up, sending it to his client. He searched social media, but all he found was the official Instagram for Ten’s business and that was probably run by Jisung, too, that was how Johnny handles his own social media, after all, so he didn’t even bother.

He unlocked his phone and suddenly got struck by an idea.

“Johnny-Hyung? Are you dying, too?” Doyoung’s voice sounded frantic.

“What? No. Who’s dying?”

“Oh, no one, only Jaehyun flipping, because Yukhei decided it’d be a good idea to visit his boyfriend in his waiting room, when they’re promoting at the same time, and his band mates were live on Instagram at the time, so he showed up for about 0.3 second’s in Jaemin’s live, standing innocently next to Renjun and Jaehyun’s calling the end of times.” Doyoung sighed.

“If fans even notice, they can just say it was a junior-senior thing, anyway, do you think Jeno could get me Ten’s personal phone number?”

“What do you need that for? Does that man not have a business email? I highly doubt Jeno even has it and if he does, that’s private information.”

“Right. So, do you think he can?”

Doyoung groaned. “I’ll ask him. Why is everyone around me borderline insane? Yuta just spammed the group chat with emojis, because he’s going on his second date.”

“Right, I ignored that. And I am not that low.”

“Keep telling yourself that. Anyway, I have stuff to do here, because, in case your forgot I have a job.”

“Thanks Doyoung. Have fun.” Johnny laughed and Doyoung hung up.

“Mark? I’m getting more coffee, do you want some?”

“Er, I really don’t think so, thanks Hyung.” Mark eyed him with worry, but Johnny needed to stay awake for a little longer. God damn, he wasn’t 22 anymore and his body let him know.

…

Doyoung announced Jeno hadn’t been able to secure Ten’s number over take-out Chinese food and Yuta’s endless stories over Taeyong’s adorable mannerisms. They knew the drill, though Johnny knowing Taeyong personally, too, made this a little weirder than normal. 

Still, he made sure to listen carefully, because Yuta in the first weeks of dating was just radiating happiness, something Johnny could use well for himself.

“I don’t even understand why you need it? Isn’t there some photographer-code or something, that’ll make you automatic friends?” Doyoung raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah…” Johnny let his eyes roam over Yuta’s living room. “Anyway, on a completely unrelated topic. What if you found out you had a child, but the other parent to the child didn’t want to talk to you for some reason, despite parting on good terms?”

Doyoung and Yuta both put down their food and fixed Johnny in glares, before starting to shout over each other.

“John Youngho Seo, are you telling us you knocked one of your hook-ups up?”

“Did you knot someone close to heat? Are you an idiot?”

“Don’t you know how to use protection?”

“You better be paying child support! How many months pregnant are they?”

“They probably don’t want to talk to you, because you left before the sun rose!”

“Guys!” Johnny rubbed his temples. This wasn’t helpful, why had he even bothered. “No one’s pregnant.”

Yuta was the first to calm down. “Oh. Good. Sorry, that sounded different, when you said it first.”

“Are you sure? Because if you did…”

“No, no one is pregnant because of me.” That wasn’t even a lie. At least not in the present tense.

Doyoung nodded and settled against the backrest. “Well, if they don’t want to talk, you should respect that, unless you have very good reason to seek them out. And then do just that: see them! No texting or emailing shit.”

“I agree, you should visit them. But I still don’t get it, if no one’s pregnant… why did you ask?”

“I asked for someone else.” Johnny stuffed food into his mouth, so he wouldn’t have to answer anymore.

“Right, as if! I doubt Mark gets his ass into any sort of trouble.”

Johnny sighed. It suddenly seemed too inviting to just tell his friends the whole story and share his worries, but he couldn’t. He and Ten had promised to keep their… arrangement secret all those years ago and Johnny was a man of his word. Until he had more clarity over what was going on, he couldn’t say anything.

“It just came up in a conversation. Anyway, did you meet Dejun yet, Yuta?”

“No, not yet, but Taeyong showed me photos, most of which you took. He said, he didn’t want him to get confused and since we’re not really anything yet, we’ll wait. I can completely understand that. You know, I have a really good feeling about this, to be honest.”

“Well, that’s great to hear!” Johnny meant that honestly.

“So, please don’t fuck it up, will you? Just… accept that feelings are a thing and it’s okay and necessary to talk about them and be on the same page, not just fuck whenever you meet up.” Doyoung deadpanned.

“I do not… this is… the audacity! We didn’t even kiss yet!” Yuta gasped, which made Johnny and Doyoung exchange a glance.

Well, maybe this really was different, then.


	3. Chapter 3

_1st day of college, February 8 years ago_

Johnny wasn’t sure what to expect of college exactly and maybe he was asking for too much, but he had imagined people being more mature than in high school.

Why exactly he did, he wasn’t even sure himself, because it shouldn’t really surprise him that not much growing up had taken place, when these exact people only graduated high school a few weeks ago.

Still, Johnny wanted to put in headphones and turn up the music on his iPod so loud he wouldn’t have to hear young Alphas trying to flex on each other with their SLR cameras they bought using their parents’ money. Johnny knew, because he had an SLR camera bought with his parents’ money, plus his grandparents’. Those things were expensive as hell!

Which was also why he didn’t bring it to the first day of class, but picked his smaller digital camera, that made photos of completely fine quality, if they had to take any today at all. It was probably just theory anyway, and those expensive cameras were here for nothing, but showing off.

“Wow, I didn’t know they allowed Omegas, but eye-candy is always welcome, of course.”

Yep, definitely wanted to turn up the music to tune this bullshit out! Johnny glanced over to where the voice had come from and saw a short guy, several earrings dangling from both ears. He wondered, if he should step in and put the guy back in his place. He had always done that in school and many Omegas were thankful, when he stood up for them and they wouldn’t have to take the rude comments.

But before he even could think about it, the guy’s head snapped around, earrings jingling.

“You do realise, that acting like a dick won’t make yours bigger?” the guy gave a pointed look at the loudmouth’s crotch, before turning away and waltzing through the rows of tables, like nothing had happened.

Well, that was different! And hot!

While a lot of the Alphas and Betas in the room threw the guy nasty looks, Johnny found himself immediately intrigued. The Omega stopped by his table.

“Didn’t your parents teach you staring was rude? Or is the urge to order me around and show me my place as a piece of meat too big to hold back?” the tone was mocking and Johnny was pretty sure, he was already in love.

“Not really one for the whole dom-sub stuff. Unless you like taking the reins.” Johnny winked and the guy’s eyebrows shot up under his thick bangs, before a smile crept on his face.

“Is that one still free?”

“As free as me on a weekend night. I’m Johnny, nice to meet you.”

“Ten. And the pleasure is all mine.”

…

Ten’s pictures were beautiful, Ten himself was beautiful, and the most funny person to be around with and Johnny knew he was so fucked, when Ten announced the last thing he ever wanted to do, was get married and didn’t believe in the concept of love.

But of course, Johnny still didn’t say no, when Ten asked, if he wanted to have sex, no strings attached, just because it was fun and Johnny seemed like a person good for casual things.

Johnny was definitely not a person for casual things. Doyoung would have his head, if he knew what he was doing, but they both agreed that no one could know about it, so that wasn’t a worry.

Because he just wanted to have what he could get, no matter how little it was, even if he was giving more than he was getting, it was all worth it for Ten.

…

“Are you home?” Ten’s voice was breathless in the line.

“Yeah, I’m doing the photoshop stuff Kim gave us.”

“Good, I’m coming over in five, god, I’m so fucking angry!”

“Yeah, sure.”

Their friends with benefits thing had gone on for over two years now and sometimes it was easy to forget Ten wasn’t his boyfriend and once they were graduating, they would just return to being friends, as if nothing had ever happened. At the same time, Johnny was reminded of that, whenever he referred to him as “one of his classmates” to Yuta or Doyoung, two worlds that didn’t mix.

The lock beeped in confirmation of the right pin and Johnny saved his project, before turning to the door, where Ten was taking off his shoes. With three steps through the tiny room, Ten was by his desk and sat down on top.

“They gave the fucking scholarship to Alex. In what world are Alex’s pictures better than mine?” Ten hissed.

“No one in our year takes better photos than you.” Johnny massaged Ten’s thighs.

“Aw, Johnny, you’re the best. Anyway, I fucking hate that arsehole and his ugly photoshopped to hell and back portraits and the only reason he got that money was, because he could put a goddamn A in the blank for secondary gender, and that’s the whole truth.”

Johnny listened and kept giving silent reassurance, until Ten was spent and looked down on him with his dark eyes.

“I keep saying this, but I mean it. Your future husband or wife better appreciate you, because you’re heaven sent and if not, give me a call and I’ll rip them a new one.” Ten grinned and Johnny smiled using the happiness from what he said to hide the pain Ten’s words brought. “If you massage a little higher up, I’ll get turned on, by the way, if you were interested in that…”

Johnny eyed Ten for a moment, to see, if he was actually interested or just saying it, because it was something Ten would say. But he seemed genuinely interested, so he let his hand slowly creep higher, until he was just below where his legs met and watched the bulge in Ten’s pants grow.

The Omega let him for a few more moments, before getting impatient, because Ten wasn’t a person for a lot of teasing, at least not, when he was the one getting teased.

He slid off the table, straddling Johnny, so his dick pressed against Johnny’s abdomen. “Kiss me.” Ten demanded and Johnny happily complied, the Omega easily opening up under his lips and when their tongues met, Johnny jerked backwards. “Ten, you got your tongue pierced?”

Ten grinned and poked it out showing off the metal stud.

“I told you, I’d get it last week. You didn’t think I’d really do, I knew it! If you eat me out, I’ll blow you and show you how amazing that feels.”

“Fucking hell.” Johnny immediately started fumbling with Ten’s pants, to get them off him as fast as possible.

They moved to the bed, which meant turning to the left and lying down, because of the tiny room, and Ten let his legs fall open on both sides of Johnny’s shoulders and Johnny didn’t even wait a second, leaning down and making Ten exhale happily.

It didn’t take long, until Ten came, whole body shaking, Johnny’s name on his lips. Johnny always tried to save all these moments in his brain, but it didn’t work like a hard drive, unfortunately, so he wouldn’t remember every time Ten had come until he died.

…

“I think we shouldn’t keep in touch.”

Johnny jerked up, all the tiredness from a good orgasm replaced by shock. “What? Are you breaking up with me?” a small, desperate laugh left Johnny’s lips. There still was one week left in the semester, though no one had any classes or tests left, it was just the time they had left before the graduation ceremony.

Ten was already almost dressed, which was odd, because normally, Ten was one for cuddles. He had insisted on keeping his shirt on, too. He had for a few weeks now and Johnny respected it, though it made it much harder to play with his nipples, which Johnny loved doing. He guessed it was because he put on a little weight, Johnny could tell, because he knew his body so well after three years.

Not like Johnny minded. But Ten seemed to.

“To break up, we would have to boyfriends in the first place, Johnny, and we aren’t. I just… I’ll be going a lot of places and you’ll have your business starting up, plus you hopefully finally get those dates with future Mr or Mrs Seos. I don’t know, I never liked that stuff.” The Omega didn’t even look his way.

“Ten, stop the bullshit. You can travel the world and get crowned by National Geography and still occasionally answer a text.”

Ten gave him an unreadable look and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”

…

But Ten never did. Johnny almost missed him during the graduation ceremony, a huge party, and when he found him, the hug was short and cold. He should be thankful. That Ten was making it easy to say goodbye. But he didn’t, because Johnny worried if he was alright, what was wrong, how to cheer him up.

Which was impossible, when Ten seemed to have disappeared off the face of earth just after that day. He didn’t have a website, his photos were nowhere to be found and he didn’t reply to Johnny’s regular texts. Johnny knew, he should take a hint and just let go. He buried himself in work, quickly made a name for himself, but he kept texting once a month, still hoping.

Because he regretted so much not having told Ten how he felt. He might have gotten turned down, very likely even, but in any case, Ten would have been gone and it’d have been much better, if he at least knew how Johnny felt.

On a late August Friday, a year later, Johnny’s assistant told him, she found a newly created website for someone called Ten, located in South Korea and Johnny only took one glance at it and knew, it was his Ten, because his photos were like a part of Ten’s soul.

That day was also the first day, when his text didn’t get through and he got the automatic reply, that the number was no longer assigned.

So, Johnny did what any adult without proper coping mechanisms did, and went to get drunk, only to get roped into a conversation with a Beta, who had been at the bar for much longer, who was trying to make everything right for his husband and one-year-old son, but felt like it wasn’t enough, soon sobbing into Johnny’s shoulder.

It seemed like fate had taken pity on Johnny and send in the Moons, who pulled him up from what felt like the lowest point in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuta and Johnny both are a year older than Ten and Doyoung in this canon, like in real life, but because of being from abroad, they had to retake a year in school.
> 
> Sorry this is so short, but I wanted to finish the flashback in one chapter~


	4. Chapter 4

Johnny wasn’t sure if this really was a good idea, but he found himself at the closed front door of Privé gallery the next morning. He felt like maybe this was taking it too far, but then again, was it really? If all else failed, he’d definitely be able to talk to Ten on the opening night. But he knew that wouldn’t be fun for him, nor Ten, because there’d be press people and other guests and so on.

He knocked and waited. There was a big window left of the door, but it was hung from inside, so no one could glance inside. 

“Hello? May I help you?” A boy popped his head out the door, and Johnny startled a little at the volume at which he spoke. Like a mini-Yukhei.

“Uh, I’m looking for Ten?”

The boy beamed even wider. Johnny felt his motherly instincts flare up. “Oh, he’s not here yet, but he’ll be in soon. If you have the time, you could just wait.” There was a Chinese accent in his words Johnny knew all too well. 

“Sure, if that’s no problem.”

“Doubt it, not like anyone else is here, they make me do all the work on my own. I mean, I get it, because I’m the best at it, but still. I’ll enjoy the company.” The boy opened the door and Johnny stepped inside, slightly confused.

“Where’s Baekhyun-sshi? And Jeno?”

“You know them? Baekhyun-Hyung decided he needed glasses with another shape very urgently for the opening, because else there was no way it’d be aesthetically pleasing, and Jeno-Hyung can carry more than I can, so he had to come with. Oh, by the way, I’m Zhong Chenle, nice to meet you.”

“Seo Johnny. Nice to meet you, too.”

“Oh! I’ve heard of you! Do you know Qian Kun?” Chenle was talking at the same volume, while bouncing through the room, hanging up about 1,000 tiny glass shards around an outline for a frame.

“Yeah, we studied together.”

“Yes, Kun-Ge’s my cousin. Ah, the world is so small! So, you probably know Ten-Ge from there, too? I know Ten-Ge and Kun-Ge were in the same year.”

Johnny hummed, while Chenle happily continued talking about the concept of the exhibit and how ground-breaking and new it was. Johnny would have loved to properly listen, but his nerves keep flaring up, whenever a shadow passed the window and his brain went into alarm mode, because maybe it’d be Ten this time, but it never was.

“What sort of photos do you take, Johnny-Ge?” Chenle cheerfully asked, holding his glass to the wall to dry.

“Oh, uh, depends. I shoot a lot of idols, music industry, but sometimes for magazines and fashion, too.”

“Really? So you’ve met, like famous people?” Chenle screeched, eyes twinkling. “Do you know Neo? I love Neo! My favourite of all times is Huang Renjun!”

Johnny scratched his neck “Yeah, I’ve done a few photo shoots with them.”

“Holy shit, no way! How are they in real life? Are they just as nice and funny? Are they really that pretty? Because they’re really, really pretty on screen. I mean, I know I’m not exactly the target group, but I could always identify with them a lot, because they’re my age and Omegas, too.”

“Yes, they’re very… fun to work with.” Johnny nodded. Like any group with more than five members, it tended to get chaotic on set and he clearly remembered Donghyuck and Jaemin fighting very loudly over the need for pink eyeshadow (an argument Donghyuck won, of course). But Chenle didn’t need to know that.

“Wow, I can’t believe I met someone like you! I’ll have to check all my albums and photobooks for the photographer credit now!”

Johnny smiled, feeling oddly flattered, despite Chenle not really knowing him. 

The bell on the door chimed and Johnny snapped out of his musings over fans and fan culture. 

“I can’t believe they think they can get away with such outrageous prices, like who do they think they are?” 

“Hi Ten-Hyung. Hi Jisung!” Chenle waved with the glue bottle. A tall and lanky boy stepped inside first, silently listening to the rant, carrying a large frame. So this was the assistant that had given Mark trouble. He didn’t look like he could.

Behind him, Ten waltzed inside, hair windswept, clothing pitch black as per usual, also carrying supplies. He didn’t seem to notice Johnny, putting his belongings down, before turning towards Chenle, which was when his eyes fell on him.

Johnny raised a hand to a small wave, but before he could even open his mouth, Ten had made a 180 and dashed out the shop.

For fuck’s sake.

“Excuse me, boys.” Johnny jumped off his chair and followed the Omega immediately. 

Hongdae’s streets were reasonably crowded during this time of the day, but Johnny immediately found Ten with his eyes and waved through people, using his taller height to his advantage.

“Ten, for god’s sake, will you please just talk to me?” Johnny called, some people stopped in their track, looking after him, some even stepped out of the way to let him pass and he was behind the other in no time.

Ten must have sensed him, because he turned around and stopped, Johnny slamming into him from the momentum and taking them both to the ground. More people crowded around them now, though Johnny couldn’t blame them. 

“Please, can we talk?”

Ten blinked at him and then turned his head and gave one curd nod. They scrambled off the floor and Johnny gave a mock bow to the people still watching, that quickly scurried off.

They just stared at each other and then at the wall next to them and the pavement for a little, until Ten finally opened his mouth. He stuck to English, which he had always been a little more comfortable with using. 

“So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Are you kidding me? Okay, first of all, is it true what the woman said? Is Hendery… do we…. Am I the father?” Johnny stuttered.

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t think that’d… interest me?” Johnny clenched his hands into fists. Ten had been and probably, hopefully, still was a force of nature, Johnny loved that about him. But this? That was just absurd.

“Listen, Johnny, we had a very clear arrangement, I fucked up and I handled the consequences. I didn’t tell you, because you would have probably decided it’d be the only honourable consequence to stick with me, because you’re that kind of person, and I would have held you back from achieving your dream of a domestic family with a football team of kids. I couldn’t have lived with myself, if I were the reason for you to have to settle with second best. 

“Now that you know, you wanna be a good dad to him, right? You wanna try and make it work, when really, I’ll just get in the way of you and your husband and happy family, ruining that for you, because I wasn’t careful some years back. Of course, he couldn’t have told you!” 

Ten wiped away a tear. Johnny just stared at him, looking for words.

The person whom he never stopped loving but let go, because he didn’t want to stand in his way to achieve his dreams… went… because he didn’t want to stand in his way to achieve his dreams.

“Okay, first of all, what husband, what family?” Johnny gasped. Ten’s eyes flitted down to his left hand, confusion starting to show on his face.

“You didn’t marry Doyoung?”

“Doyoung?” Johnny couldn’t stop himself from yelling, Ten startled and stepped backwards. “Oh my god, why would I marry him?”

“You two literally were friends since forever and stuck together like magnets. Doyoung this, Doyoung that… I thought you were in love with him, but not ready to tell him yet.” Ten started to look annoyed, rather than confused now.

“Well, yes, we’re friends, we still are, but nothing more. Doyoung’s been married for two years! And not to me, if that wasn’t clear.”

“Oh.”

“And second of all, it’s not your fault, if you get pregnant? There’s always two people to that.”

“Let’s not pretend that’s how society sees it. You don’t get to talk, when you weren’t the one dealing with doctors and nurses and teachers for years and always getting those looks, those good meant advices on the oh so important other parent.”

“You’re right. I haven’t, but you didn’t give me the chance to. When, hell, I haven’t even dated anyone, because, Ten, the only person I was ever in love with and still am to this day, despite him being a complete idiot and keeping my own son from me, is you!” Johnny took the Omega’s hand, trying to convey more than five years of heart ache in his eyes. 

But he saw the doubt in there, so he added “And no, this is no because of that very adorable child, thought that is a wonderful bonus I don’t want to lose under any circumstances. It’s because of you, your smile, your laugh, your sense of humour, your sassy attitude, your eye for beautiful pictures, your everything, but the part where we both thought, we knew what was best for the other and I know our agreement was only physical, but I think I’ve loved you since you put that arsehole in his place the first day.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then, you moron?” Ten asked, punching Johnny’s arm without any force behind the blow, trying to blink tears away.

“Because I thought you wouldn’t feel the same and I was scared. And I knew you had huge goals, I couldn’t have borne being the one to hold you back.” Johnny felt a tear run down his cheek now, too.

“God, we’re both so dumb.” Ten sniffed “Of course I felt the same, Johnny Seo, you’re literally perfect! With that cheerful, positive attitude and your endless patience for any and everything? Not to mention, that you don’t expect anyone to be a certain way or would every try to change someone. I didn’t believe in love when I met you, but then you were always there, being so amazing and…”

Johnny opened his arms and Ten fell against him, just as small, when he wrapped his arms around him, as he used to be. “I love you, too.” He mumbled, just loud enough for Johnny to hear it.

“So, can we give this a new start? But as a real relationship?” Johnny whispered into the dark brown hair.

“I hope you didn’t think you’d get to escape anymore.” Ten pulled away, bright smile on his face, despite the tears. “And by the way, those photos of Henny and Yangyang with the special effects almost made me pass out from laughing so hard. I really wanted to tell you that.”

“But they were so excited to edit it.”

“That’s what it looked like. Come on, I need to get some work done.”

“Me, too, actually. Can I have your phone number now? My assistant got shut down by yours.”

“Ah, yes, Jisung’s truly an asset to my company. Give me your phone.”

…

“You have a what now?”

“A date? Those things you go to all the time?” Johnny felt a bit cornered. Yuta had only once been in his office, years ago, and Mark had almost called security on him. Maybe Johnny should have let him.

“Okay, Mr. Smarty-Pants, I know what a fucking date is, I didn’t know you did! Who is the lucky person, why is it happening now and what the fuck took you so long?”

“Remember when I asked you what to do about someone who might have a child…”

“I fucking knew it, you weren’t asking for anyone else! I seemed fishy the second you left the house!” Yuta was screaming at this point. “I’m texting Doyoung this second, who is it? Who did you even hook up with?”

“Okay, I’m just not going to give you any information anymore.” Johnny leaned back in his chair and let his computer turn back on from stand by. Yuta was next to him within a second.

“You can’t do that to me! I’m one of your best friends! I always tell you everything about my dates!”

“Without anyone asking in the first place.” Johnny sighed dramatically. 

…

Doyoung was holding his head. “I just… I can’t even wrap my head around that. I mean, where do I start. Should I feel offended you never told us you had a friend with benefits, or didn’t I every want to know that anyway? Should I congratulate you, that you scored a date, or tell you that Omega is clearly not to be trusted, if not a bit crazy for never telling you until now, that you had a child?”

“Ah, no judging the people we decide to date, unless justified!” Yuta scolded and Doyoung groaned.

“Sorry. Uh. So. Is the child cute?”

“Oh yes, he is. Very adorable, a bit shy at first.”

“You said you took photos of him, can we see? I wanna see mini-Johnny.”

“You can, but he doesn’t take after me.” Johnny fumbled with his phone and showed the pictures from the playground to his friends, who stared at the screen in deep concentration for several seconds. 

“This is disappointing, he really doesn’t look anything like you.” Yuta agreed, but Doyoung kept staring at the picture.

“Who did you say was the Omega?”

“I didn’t say anyone. It’s just a date. If it goes south, I don’t want half of Seoul to have heard from Yuta.”

“Excuse me?”

“But it’s that guy you hung out with a lot, right? Hair like chopped off with a ruler, a lot of piercings, always dressed in black?” Doyoung raised an eyebrow, as he tore his eyes off the photo.

“Uh.”

“Hm, I thought there was something going on between the two of you. It’s always nice to be proven right.” Doyoung turned the screen off and grinned, as he returned the phone. Johnny sighed and left it uncommented, while Yuta seemed to try and figure out who Doyoung was talking about. Maybe this was an Omega thing, to see relationships where there were or weren’t any. 

…

“Well, I certainly was very surprised to find out, that you have a child.” Taeil mused, while he waited next to Johnny in the entrance room of the kindergarten.

“Imagine me then.”

“I certainly will feel less bad about making you babysit Yangyang in the future now.” He snickered. 

“Johnny-Hyung!” Two kids screamed at the same time and Johnny found both his legs attacked by one child each.

“Did I mention that I think my child loves you more than me?” 

“What are we going to do, Johnny-Hyung?” Hendery excitedly asked, blinking up at him.

“First of all, we need to get dressed. It’s cold outside.”

“I wanna do something exciting, too!” Yangyang whined, still stuck to his leg, while Hendery started getting his outside clothing on.

“Don’t you think your Appa will do something exciting with you, too?” Johnny tried to pry off the child. Taeil seemed relaxed, watching Johnny struggle with all the time in the world. 

“No. It’ll be boring!” Yangyang wailed. Johnny sighed “I wanna be with Henny!”

“Yangyang?” Johnny kneeled down to be on eye-level with the child. “Don’t you think your Appa is very sad to hear you don’t want to be with him?”

There were tears starting to pool in the boy’s eyes and a second later, he was dashing to his father, who was on his phone and almost toppled over backwards, when the child slammed into him, apologising and confirming he was the very best Appa in the whole world.

“Are we going now?” Hendery’s voice came from below. Johnny looked down and felt the immediate need to cuddle the child, squish his cheeks and plaster thousands of kisses over him. But that’d be taking it much too far, so he held himself back. Maybe in the future. When Hendery knew him better and knew that he was his father and all that.

It was just so wonderful to know, this was his child. It felt different, like he needed to do even more to protect him, to support him and make him happy.

“Yes, come on, let’s pick up Daddy from work.”

“Yes.” Hendery held up his hand and Johnny easily took it.

 

Johnny had been to the gallery four days ago, but apparently, everything had been re-done since. Baekhyun himself was pushing a frame around the wall, stepped back a few steps to check, before stepped up and moving it again. Jisung was on his phone, slouched over a chair, looking bored.

“Well, I don’t think Ten-Ge’s ready to leave yet, but he hasn’t thrown anything in a while, so that’s good.” Chenle cheerfully announced, leading them through the rooms. Hendery was obviously intimidated by the many adults, glued to Johnny’s leg.

Ten had glitter in his hair and looked dazzling. Too bad there was no pause button so Johnny could stare for a few hours, especially when he turned and started smiling, looking so beautiful.

“Daddy!” Hendery separated from Johnny’s leg and bounced towards his father, who leaned down and picked the boy up, giving him a kiss on the cheek and Johnny knew he could die happily now, having seen that. But it got better, because Ten looked up and smiled at him.

“Hey Johnny. Time passed so quickly, but I’ll be done in a second. Can you send Jisung? Henny, do you want to play with Johnny a little?” Ten asked and Hendery nodded and marched back to Johnny once Ten had set him back down.

“Do you know ‘Jimmy called the police’?” Hendery asked, while they returned to the first room to send Jisung to Ten, who sighed deeply, before dragging himself back.

“No, but you could teach me.”

Hendery nodded eagerly and Johnny found himself on the ground, being taught a rhyme and the matching clapping choreography. It had been very long since he last had done those. But he felt like he got the hang of it, before Ten emerged from the back.

“How’s Johnny doing? Is he learning fast?” Ten asked from above them.

Hendery squinted at Johnny “He’s okay. But he needs to study some more.”

“I’ll work hard.”

“Alright, then let’s go, shall we?”

Johnny picked himself off the floor, much slower than Hendery, who was already hopping towards the door.

“Do you think you’ll be done until opening?” Johnny asked, stopping to let Jeno dash past.

“Well, we do still have another two days until then, so yes.”

“Great. I have tickets, by the way. You can meet Doyoung and Yuta again.”

“What? How did you get those?” Ten gasped.

“Jeno.” Johnny grinned. 

“Daddy, can we get ice cream? Yangyang said you should always ask for more ice cream!”

“Henny, we can’t just eat in the afternoon, you won’t be hungry for dinner.”

Hendery turned where he was walking ahead, pouting adorably and crossed his arms to show his disapproval. “Fine.” He turned to Johnny, right of Ten. “Appa, can we get ice cream?”

Johnny almost stumbled over air and smashed face first into the concrete. 

Ten seemed just as surprised, throwing him a quick glance, before addressing Hendery, who was still pouting, oblivious to the impact of the words. 

“Sweetie, why would you call Johnny Appa?”

“Is it not good? I thought you’re Daddy already, so he has to be something else, you can’t have the same name, when he’s my father now, or I’ll be confused.”

“But… how…?”

“You kissed! Only people who love each other kiss, so, Johnny-Hyung is my Appa now. Can we get ice cream now? Appa, why are you crying?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I really enjoy writing children, I have to do this more often...
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading~


End file.
